Art direction: So let’s have one guy, all white, in the middle of a group of (let’s say) some “darker coloured” elves. Have one of them looking at him very carefully pondering the question, “Is he the pretender?”

I’m seeing a bunch of people stuck in a meeting. As such this is a very good depiction of the series, which pretty much consists of a very long series of meetings and the setup for same. (Sometimes the setup takes a whole book.)

Does fidelity to the story count? It is far from the first book in the sequence and anyone with any exposure to Cherryh’s writing would know what is going on. With the exception of the skin color for the atevi (they should be almost jet black) it does a rather good job of illustrating the contents. The fact that the original commenter hasn’t bothered to find this out is rather lame.

I note that while many of the covers on this site are truly awful, the comments are often not much better, totally missing the point of some of them, as in this case. The whole exercise seems akin to having a 15 year old rock fan write comments on Bach or Corelli.

It may surprise you, but people usually buy books they don’t already own. So they dont know anything about the story before buy it. If i went into a bookshop and saw that cover i wouldnt even bother looking for the first book in the series.

I’ve read a reasonable number of the books featured on this site. Stop being such a fanboy and appriecate the fact you can still enjoy something while acknowledging it cheesy badness.

The Forgotten Realms, Warhammer 40k, Star Trek, Star Wars covers all have fidelity to the story, they still have horrific covers.

Odd to me how some people don’t seem to get the nature of this site. It was my impression that, like all great parody, this site all about poking gentle fun at the eccentricities of this genre that we all love in our hearts. Getting angry at a post on this site would be like getting angry at Pratchett’s early Discworld stuff where he lovingly lampoons Conan, Lord of the Rings, Fafard and the Grey Mouser and many, many more. If we can’t laugh at ourselves then we certainly shouldn’t be allowed to laugh at anyone else.

Okay, I know this post is old and stuff – but I only recently found this site thanks to someone’s comment over on the blog Awful Library Books – and frankly, some of you people need to get the sticks out of your tuchuses and apologize to the owner of this blog. The cover is snark worthy. I mean, one albino looking guy who has a face that could only come by some serious long term first cousin marriages surrounded by a bunch of black guys who look ready for some Blacksplotation version of Lord Of The Rings with a pinch of Star Wars thrown in? Bah! I don’t care what sort of “genius” you think the artist is, my stick figures with lopsided heads would look better.

Now I love science fiction, my first crush was Mr. Spock, I was 3 years old. But that doesn’t mean I don’t make Star Trek jokes or snark on bad sci-fi covers. In fact, it’s bad covers like this that give science fiction a bad name. It’s just like all those heaving boobs and shirtless dudes on romance novel covers. The writer themselves might be so good even God weeps in jealousy because He/She will never messure up. But bad cover art makes others who see it pick fun.

I’m also a big Sherlock Holmes fan. That doesn’t mean I don’t snark and make snide remarks when someone draws cover art of him with the deerstalker he never wore and smoking the gooseneck pipe he never smoked.

Just because you love something, doesn’t mean you can’t pick fun.

And besides, no one’s put a gun to your head and forced you to read this blog. Don’t like what’s being said? Don’t read it. That simple. Be a grown up and walk away instead of whining like some kid trying to stand up for being a fan of Justin Beiber or Rebecca Black.

Though no one needs to appologise! Not everyone gets sarcasm so I understand.

In the words of Larry Dixon one of Baen’s great artists, responding to some covers we poked fun at here:

“I have a life philosophy that embraces the humor in all things. As we put it in an interview not long ago, to fully respect something you must acknowledge that all things have an element of the absurd. If you treat something as wholly serious, youâ€™re not respecting its entirety, since you are trimming off and discarding the silly side of itâ€”in other words, to fully love something you must also make fun of it.â€

@GSS noob, congratulations on surviving a complete archive trawl of bad covers! Your appellation of “GSS noob” is now almost comically inappropriate, you have proven yourself to be at least a GSS regular! Possibly even a GSS veteran (or grizzled veteran, being grizzled is optional).